Plaque Assay System for Several Species of Rickettsia

The plaque assay developed in this laboratory for the Bitter Root strain of Rickettsia rickettsii has recently been shown to be appropriate for other rickettsiae.     

Comparison of Microtiter Procedures with the Plaque Technique for Assay of Vesicular Stomatitis Virus

This paper describes a microprocedure for the tissue culture assay of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and compares the sensitivity of the method with the conventional plaque assay of viral concentration. Microtiter and plaque assay methods were used in titrations, neutralization tests, and thermoinactivation studies with this virus in chick embryo fibroblasts (CEF) and L, HeLa, and PK cell lines. Titration experiments with VSV by the microtiter procedure on preformed monolayers were significantly more sensitive than the plaque assay (P = 0.05). The results of the neutralization tests and thermoinactivation studies also showed greater ability to detect residual virus by the microtiter procedure (P = 0.10). In addition, the microtiter procedure was simpler, less costly, and more rapid than the plaque assay.     

Micromethod (Spot-Plate) Determination of In Vitro Antibiotic Susceptibility

The spot-plate method for determining in vitro antibiotic susceptibility is a modified version of the standard tube dilution technique, with the same principle of twofold dilution. Results of the spot-plate method are compared with those of the standard tube dilution technique. It is proposed that the spot-plate method is an equally accurate, but more rapid and economical, technique for determining in vitro antibiotic susceptibility.     

圈养林麝脓肿病病原菌分离鉴定及药敏分析

目的 确定林麝化脓性疾病的主要病原菌,寻找有效的治疗措施(药物).方法 采用3种培养基对28个人工饲养的发病林麝脓灶进行病原菌的分离培养、细菌革兰氏染色、镜检,然后对分离病原菌进行16S rRNA 基因PCR扩增及测序分析鉴定,再进一步用BIOLOG自动微生物鉴定系统对3种可疑菌进行生理生化鉴定,用昆明小鼠分组进行系列病理实验,最后用纸片扩散法测定病原菌对22种抗生素的敏感性.结果 脓灶中共分离到12种细菌,其中化脓隐秘杆菌Arcanobacterium pyogenes、绿脓杆菌Pseudomonas aeruginosa、蜡状芽孢杆菌Bacillus cereus的检出率分别为100.0%、21.4%、14.3%,其他菌的检出率较低.用BIOLOG自动微生物鉴定系统鉴定结果与16S rRNA鉴定结果完全一致;小鼠致病性实验中进行了脓液培养后注射,分离到单菌鉴定后进一步分别注射,剖检后进行接种划线鉴定并得到与注射前相同的病菌,确定了这几种菌均具有较强的致病性;药敏实验最终确定针对化脓隐秘杆菌的有效药物为环丙沙星,对这3种病菌的有效药物为克林霉素、环丙沙星.结论 初步确定林麝脓肿病主要是由于化脓隐秘杆菌原发感染,进而引起其他病菌的继发感染和混合感染,最终导致病重死亡;环丙沙星等为敏感药物.     

Assay of the Antibiotic Activity of Serum

One of the drawbacks of the "tube dilution" method for the assay of antibiotics in human serum has been illustrated by utilizing serum-sensitive and serum-resistant strains of Escherichia coli. In the case of serum-sensitive strains, it was found that fresh serum alone may account for the same degree of inhibition and thus yield minimal inhibitory concentrations identical to those obtained with serum combined with antibiotics, that is, "simulated" serum assay specimens. This fallacy of the method is discussed with regard to those instances in which laboratories were merely to utilize the patient's own coliform organism as the test organism, or with respect to the assay of, for example, polymyxins, in which inadvertently a R(ough) and therefore, serum-sensitive strain of E. coli were to be used as the indicator organism. It is recommended that serum-resistant laboratory strains of Staphylococcus aureus or E. coli of known antibiotic susceptibility be employed as the test organisms proper in order to circumvent the inherent bactericidal activity of serum.     

Plaque Assay for Pneumonia Virus of Mice

A plaque assay for the quantitation of pneumonia virus of mice is described. To obtain reproducible plaque formation, proteolytic enzymes had to be incorporated in the overlay medium. The plaque morphology observed in the presence of pancreatin and chymotrypsin was superior to that seen with trypsin. Although the plaque assay was found to be slightly less sensitive than the TCID(50) determination described by Harter and Choppin, it enables cloning of the virus by plaque selection and permits further study of pneumonia virus of mice.     

Double-Layer Plaque Assay for Quantification of Enteroviruses

We describe here a double-layer plaque assay for the quantification of enteroviruses, combining a monolayer plaque assay and a suspended-cell plaque assay. The double-layer assay provides significantly greater counts than other methods of virus quantification of both suspensions of pure culture viruses and naturally occurring viruses. The counts obtained by this method are approximately one order of magnitude greater than those obtained with the more commonly used method, the monolayer plaque assay. We conclude that the methods available for quantifying viruses rank in efficiency as follows: double-layer plaque assay ≥ suspended-cell plaque assay > counting cytopathogenic virus adsorbed to cellulose nitrate membrane filters ≥ most probable number of cytopathogenic units > monolayer plaque assay. Moreover, the double-layer plaque assay allows the use of two different cell lines in the two layers. Using the human colonic carcinoma cell line CaCo2 facilitates the recovery of a greater number and diversity of naturally occurring enteroviruses in water than the monolayer agar method. In addition, the pretreatment of cells with 5-iodo-2′-deoxyuridine (IDU) prior to the quantification of enteroviruses by the double-layer plaque assay provides significantly higher recoveries than the use of IDU does with the other methods of quantification.     

Genetic Architecture of Intrinsic Antibiotic Susceptibility

Background

Antibiotic exposure rapidly selects for more resistant bacterial strains, and both a drug''s chemical structure and a bacterium''s cellular network affect the types of mutations acquired.

Methodology/Principal Findings

To better characterize the genetic determinants of antibiotic susceptibility, we exposed a transposon-mutagenized library of Escherichia coli to each of 17 antibiotics that encompass a wide range of drug classes and mechanisms of action. Propagating the library for multiple generations with drug concentrations that moderately inhibited the growth of the isogenic parental strain caused the abundance of strains with even minor fitness advantages or disadvantages to change measurably and reproducibly. Using a microarray-based genetic footprinting strategy, we then determined the quantitative contribution of each gene to E. coli''s intrinsic antibiotic susceptibility. We found both loci whose removal increased general antibiotic tolerance as well as pathways whose down-regulation increased tolerance to specific drugs and drug classes. The beneficial mutations identified span multiple pathways, and we identified pairs of mutations that individually provide only minor decreases in antibiotic susceptibility but that combine to provide higher tolerance.

Conclusions/Significance

Our results illustrate that a wide-range of mutations can modulate the activity of many cellular resistance processes and demonstrate that E. coli has a large mutational target size for increasing antibiotic tolerance. Furthermore, the work suggests that clinical levels of antibiotic resistance might develop through the sequential accumulation of chromosomal mutations of small individual effect.     

Antibiotic Susceptibility of Anaerobic Ruminal Bacteria

This study demonstrated that 15 species of ruminal bacteria with no previous history of contact with antibiotics are susceptible to bacitracin, chloramphenicol, chlortetracycline, erythromycin, novobiocin, oleandomycin, oxytetracycline, penicillin, tetracycline, tylosin, and vancomycin. A number of the species were not inhibited by kanamycin, neomycin, polymyxin, and streptomycin. The data suggest that antibiotic-resistant cells occur within susceptible cultures of these species. Streptococcus bovis FD-10 and a nonruminal anaerobe, Bacteroides melaninogenicus BE-1, showed similar antibiotic susceptibilities.     

Decreased Antibiotic Susceptibility Driven by Global Remodeling of the Klebsiella pneumoniae Proteome

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Highlights

• •Global proteomic remodeling alters antibiotic susceptibility in K. pneumoniae.
• •Drug specific transport, sugar utilization, central metabolism, capsule synthesis.
• •Common pathways of reactive oxygen scavenging, turnover of misfolded proteins.
• •Integrated adjustments and unique drug-specific features for drug combinations.

     

Prototype of a Fully Automated Device for Determination of Bacterial Antibiotic Susceptibility in the Clinical Laboratory

A completely automated system for the performance of antibiotic susceptibility tests in the clinical laboratory is described. With a modicum of personnel involvement, data on 40 specimens tested against 13 antibiotics are obtained every hour after an initial 3-hr period. The step by step explanation of the functioning of this prototype system, based on a thoroughly tested manual model, is presented. The system compares well with the standard diffusion test and has a potential for application to other endeavors of the clinical microbiology laboratory with a comparable saving in time and labor.     

油桐尺蠖核型多角体病毒的空斑测定

在油桐尺蠖卵巢细胞系上对油桐尺蠖核型多角体病毒(BsNPV)进行了空斑测定。用此方法测定了BsNPV的感染力,并将所得的结果与其TCID_(50)进行比较,结果显示这两种方法在测定病毒感染力时敏感性相似。     

流行性出血热(EHF)病毒半微量甲基纤维素空斑法的建立

本文报道EHF病毒一种新的空斑形成按术,即半微量甲基纤维素空斑法的建立及其应用。6株来源不同的毒株均可在V_(ero)-E_6细胞或V_(ero)细胞上形成清晰的空斑,形成的空斑能被特异抗EHF病毒血清所中和。其敏感性与用琼脂糖作覆盖物的空斑法一致。该法具有操作简便、快速等优点,适用于EHF的病原学和血清学研究。     

Assay of Variola Virus by the Fluorescent Cell-Counting Technique

A quantitative assay for infective variola virus particles was developed which is based on the enumeration of cells containing fluorescent viral antigen after infection of McCoy cell monolayers. The direct fluorescent-antibody technique was employed to stain cells. The efficiency of virus adsorption was markedly enhanced by centrifugation of virus inoculum onto McCoy cell monolayers at 500 x g for 15 min. By this procedure, a proportionality was obtained between the number of fluorescent cells and volume of inoculum. Observations on the sequential development of viral antigen within cells and counts of fluorescent cells showed that the optimal time for enumerating fluorescent cells was after an incubation period of 16 to 20 hr. A linear function existed between virus concentration and cell-infecting units. Fluorescent cells were distributed randomly in infected cover slip cell monolayers. The assay was demonstrated to be highly sensitive, precise, and reproducible.     

Evaluation of a Plaque Assay for the Maedi-Progressive Pneumonia-Visna Viruses

A simple and direct plaque assay for maedi virus, two strains of progressive pneumonia virus, and two strains of visna virus has been developed and evaluated. The technique allows the plaques formed by these viruses to be localized without disturbing the host-cell substrate of sheep choroid plexus cells or the gelled maintenance medium over the host-cell monolayer. Diethylaminoethyl-dextran supplementation of the medium used to overlay strain K796 visna virus-infected cultures decreases the time required for maximum plaque development from 12 to 10 days, enhances the contrast of the plaques, increases the titer of plaque-forming units, and permits a plaque size heterogeneity to be realized. Both large and small plaques occur in cultures infected with the visna viruses, one strain of progressive pneumonia virus, or maedi virus. In contrast, the plaques observed in cultures infected with the second strain of progressive pneumonia virus are relatively homogeneous in size.     

Susceptibility of Rickettsia monacensis and Rickettsia peacockii to Cecropin A, Ceratotoxin A, and Lysozyme

Ticks host obligate intracellular bacteria that range from benign symbiotes to virulent human pathogens. The effects on those bacteria of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) involved in arthropod innate immunity to microbial infections are largely unknown. We evaluated effects of AMPs and a c-type lysozyme on host cell-free suspensions of the tick symbiotes Rickettsia monacensis and Rickettsia peacockii with stain-based infectivity and viability assays. Cecropin A at a concentration of 8 μM had a lethal effect on both rickettsiae while ceratotoxin A was approximately 20-fold less effective. Toxicity of both AMPs was synergized by lysozyme, an enzyme expressed by ticks. Lactoferrin, a transferrin, had no effect on R. monacensis at up to 110 μM. The rickettsiae were less sensitive to the AMPs than is typical of bacteria that grow extracellularly. Our assays may be useful in the study of AMP activity against other obligate intracellular bacteria.     

New Rapid and Simple Methods for Detection of Bacteria and Determination of Their Antibiotic Susceptibility by Using Phage Mutants

Three new methods applying a novel approach for rapid and simple detection of specific bacteria, based on plaque formation as the end point of the phage lytic cycle, are described. Different procedures were designed to ensure that the resulting plaques were derived only from infected target bacteria (“infectious centers”). (i) A pair of amber mutants that cannot form plaques at concentrations lower than their reversion rate underwent complementation in the tested bacteria; the number of plaques formed was proportional to the concentration of the bacteria that were coinfected by these phage mutants. (ii) UV-irradiated phages were recovered by photoreactivation and/or SOS repair mediated by target bacteria and plated on a recA uvrA bacterial lawn in the dark to avoid recovery of noninfecting phages. (iii) Pairs of temperature-sensitive mutants were allowed to coinfect their target bacteria at the permissive temperature, followed by incubation of the plates at the restrictive temperature to avoid phage infection of the host cells. This method allowed the omission of centrifuging and washing the infected cells. Only phages that recovered by recombination or complementation were able to form plaques. The detection limit was 1 to 10 living Salmonella or Escherichia coli O157 cells after 3 to 5 h. The antibiotic susceptibility of the target bacteria could also be determined in each of these procedures by preincubating the target bacteria with antibiotic prior to phage infection. Bacteria sensitive to the antibiotic lost the ability to form infectious centers.